A week after a late pick-six helped Edna Karr maintain its extensive winning streak, another helped blow open consecutive victory No. 33 without the need for much late drama.
The Cougars (6-0, 3-0) retook a lead just before halftime Thursday on a ball that bounced favorably their way, but took complete control in the second half to blow open as much as a 27-point lead with big plays on both sides of the ball before John Curtis (2-4, 0-3) could time the margin some in the final minutes of the 40-28 contest.
“I thought in the first (three quarters), defense was lights-out — opportunistic, played fast, played physical — but I thought they got complacent and got satisfied with what the offense was doing,” Edna Karr coach Brice Brown said. “And we can’t play complementary football like that. We can’t play shootout games in the fourth quarter of the Catholic League. This league is very disciplined, and it’s very cut and dry: Who they are is who they are. Who we are is who we are.”
Who the Cougars are is Louisiana’s most consistent program in at least a decade with a win streak that is 10th-longest in LHSAA history and more than five times longest than their nearest active challenger.
But Brown and the staff continue to challenge this year’s new-look lineup to chase more complete performances and the exceptional standard upheld by its legendary predecessor and that he will be necessary to continue stacking wins and potentially titles in a loaded District 9-5A and Division-I Select.
“Curtis has got a good team,” he said. “We’ve gotta finish the fourth quarter better. That’s unacceptable. We’ve gotta finish. And when you’re playing teams like Curtis, you’ve gotta bring the hammer to the nail. You’ve gotta bring it to ’em every single snap. Like you seen in the fourth quarter, they’re never gonna lay down. So we’ve gotta do a better job finishing. We’ve got a tough Rummel team next week, and they’re gonna be physical and well-disciplined just like this Curtis team.”
The teams traded early touchdowns off takeaways Thursday: the Cougars turned a Ronell Kindell Jr. interception into a Jermond Macklin goal-line run and 6-0 lead in the first, and the Patriots responding with a Derwyn Arline Jr. pick and London Padgett keeper for the 7-6 edge early in the second.
A pair of rushing touchdowns by junior quarterback Marlon Jones, one before the break and one after, with a safety wrapped up by sophomore defensive lineman Edward “Hulk” Dailey helped flip the slight deficit into a 21-7 lead in the third quarter.
And as John Curtis began to piece together a drive to pull back to within one score, senior defensive end Dalgen Massey got his hand in a passing lane to deflect the ball floating vulnerably to awaiting junior defensive back Juan Jasmin.
“We practice every week like it’s the state championship — 100% throughout Monday through Thursday, and then Friday we just execute it on the field,” said Jasmin, who return the first of his two interceptions about 50 yards through broken tackles to the end zone. “We’re very comfortable. It’s nothing new to us. We’re just a new group, but it’s nothing new really.”
The defensive highlight tightened the Cougars’ vice grip on victory considerably.
And they carried some of that momentum into the first half of the fourth quarter with a Forest Johnson strike to fellow junior Ky’mani Henry to turn a third-and-long play into a 34-7 lead that marked the night’s largest.
Jasmin snatched another interception and long return, but for the first time the Patriots were able to stop a turnover turning into points.
Padgett popped a touchdown run and then found junior wide receiver Jarvis Stevenson for the subsequent two-point conversion with 6:12 remaining.
Johnson and Henry swung right back with a 67-yard catch-and-run that would prove enough of a final dagger to keep John Curtis at bay despite its continued fight.
Padgett found senior tight end Caden Battard and, after a successful onside kick, Stevenson for a pair of passing touchdowns with 2:38 and 1:01 left on the clock, respectively.
But the next onside kick wouldn’t travel far enough, and the Cougars were able to kneel out the victory.
“They’ve got a lot of pride,” John Curtis coach J.T. Curtis said. “They want to win the game. And we had some negative things go against us in the first half, and I didn’t think we responded in those as positively as we needed to. Now, that’s a lot easier said about it than it is to do it when you’re out there on the field. But I think we caught a little fire there in the second half and played the way we’re capable of playing.”
This article will be further updated…
